Whoa, The Chew Actually Has Good Ratings for Once; Is 2 Chainz Responsible?

Once upon a time, middle-aged housewives nationwide sent Mario Batali, Clinton Kelly, Carla Hall, and Michael Symon terrible threats for replacing All My Children with The Chew. When that didn’t work, they just stopped watching the show, leaving it with terrible ratings.

Three years later, The Chew hasn’t raked in the ratings of a popular soap, but Variety reports that the show just brought in its highest ratings:

Now in its third season, the food-themed program that replaced “All My Children” in 2011 averaged 2.6 million viewers for the week of Sept. 30-Oct. 4 — up 15% vs. the comparable week a year ago, according to Nielsen.

But it has really turned up the heat in target demos, establishing series highs last week in both women 18-34 (208,000) and women 18-49 (587,000). It was up year-over-year in these categories by 64% and 48%, respectively, and even outdrew the show that inspired it, ABC skedmate “The View.”